How effective is the use of videos as marketing tool on a web site or blog really?

I see some of the Internet Marketing gurus are making a huge fuss about using video on your web site or blog.

I do not know about you, but I just hate it if I open a web site and a video starts to play automatically without giving me the choice whether I would like to watch it or not.

I many cases I closed the web site if I could not find a place to stop the video.

Although many of the guys think this is the next best thing in marketing, me personally thinks it sucks.

My view was confirmed today when I received a newsletter from one of the big online MLM businesses I am involved in.
They said:

After removing the introduction video from the home page and making the video available in the member’s area only, we have seen a 20% increase in conversion rate from new visitor to Trial Member.

Now that proves my point exactly.

I would love to hear others’ comment on this, would you rather buy from a site where there is a video doing the sales pitch or one where you can read what you need to know?

It is one thing to read American sales pitches which is like a 100 pages long saying the same thing over and over, you can just scroll down to the punch line and get it over with. The other day I was watching a video by a guy who claimed to have found the next best thing that made him $30mil in a year. Well after listening to the same crap for half and hour without him really saying something I just closed the site and I will never return. On this particular site there was only a video and nothing you can read.

Another thing that cheeses me off is that in South Africa bandwidth is hell out expensive. We have these monopoly driven cell networks that are milking the public. Because these videos start playing the moment you open the page, it uses your bandwidth without you giving permission for it to do so. I know one of the complaints with spam is that people use their bandwidth to download emails which they did not want, so the sender “steals” their bandwidth. I see these auto play videos as being exactly the same.